Astronomy Picture of the Day

   [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                               2022 January 6
    [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest
                        resolution version available.

                 The Last Days of Venus as the Evening Star
           Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Tamas Ladanyi ([5]TWAN)

   Explanation: That's not a [6]young crescent Moon posing behind
   cathedral towers after sunset. It's Venus in a crescent phase. About 40
   million kilometers away and [7]about 2 percent illuminated by sunlight,
   it was captured with camera and telephoto lens in this series of
   exposures as it set in western skies on January 1 from Veszprem,
   Hungary. The bright celestial beacon was languishing in the evening
   twilight, its days as the [8]Evening Star coming to a close as 2022
   began. But it was also growing larger in apparent size and becoming an
   ever thinner crescent [9]in telescopic views. Heading toward a
   (non-judgemental) [10]inferior conjunction, the inner planet will be
   positioned [11]between Earth and Sun on January 9 and generally lost
   from view in the solar glare. A crescent Venus will soon reappear
   though. Rising in the east by mid-month just before the Sun as the
   brilliant [12]Morning Star.

        Status Updates: [13]Deploying the James Webb Space Telescope
                  Tomorrow's picture: What the penguin saw.
     __________________________________________________________________

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    Authors & editors: [25]Robert Nemiroff ([26]MTU) & [27]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([28]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Phillip Newman [29]Specific rights apply.
              [30]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                A service of: [31]ASD at [32]NASA / [33]GSFC
                           & [34]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2201/venus_220101_ladanyi_web.jpg
   3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
   4. http://www.astrophoto.hu/
   5. http://www.twanight.org/
   6. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap181116.html
   7. http://www.astropixels.com/ephemeris/planets/venus2022.html
   8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap211223.html
   9. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200521.html
  10. http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/I/Inferior+Conjunction
  11. https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/inferior-conjunction-venus-between-sun-and-earth/
  12. https://history.nasa.gov/SP-424/ch1.htm
  13. https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html
  14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220105.html
  15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  18. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
  21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  23. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=220106
  24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220107.html
  25. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  26. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  27. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  28. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  30. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  31. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  32. https://www.nasa.gov/
  33. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  34. http://www.mtu.edu/